Chapter 2 - THE BOY FRANK REFUSED TO BELIEVE
The hoodie belonged to Ryan Hayes.
Ryan was a twenty-four-year-old engineering student and former Army medic.
His father, Sergeant Michael Hayes, had served beside Frank for twelve years.
Michael died during their final deployment.
Before the funeral, Frank promised him one thing.
“I’ll watch over your boy.”
Ryan had been sixteen then.
Frank helped him apply for college, drove him to therapy after he returned from his own military service, and gave him a spare key to the Collins home.
Maya treated Ryan like an older brother.
The idea that he had attacked her made no sense.
Yet the campus police found Ryan’s dorm room empty.
His phone was turned off.
His truck was missing.
Detective Lena Ortiz placed the blurry image beside a photograph of Ryan.
“The height is close,” she said. “The build is close. And the hoodie is distinctive.”
Frank pointed at the white elbow patch.
“I sewed that on myself.”
“Then we need to find him.”
Frank looked through the glass wall of Maya’s room.
She was sleeping under medication.
“Ryan would never hurt her.”
Ortiz did not argue.
“Someone did.”
At 3:17 a.m., officers found Ryan’s truck behind an abandoned gas station twenty miles outside the city.
The driver’s door was unlocked.
Blood marked the steering wheel.
Ryan was lying unconscious in a drainage ditch nearby.
He had been struck in the head.
His university hoodie was missing.
When Ryan woke the following afternoon, he asked for Maya.
Frank stood at the foot of his hospital bed.
“What happened?”
Ryan touched the bandage near his temple.
“I got a message from Maya.”
“What message?”
“She said she found something in the lab and needed me to meet her.”
Frank’s chest tightened.
“Maya didn’t send it.”
“I know that now.”
Ryan explained that someone attacked him beside his truck at approximately ten thirty.
He never reached campus.
His phone, student ID, and hoodie were taken.
“Why would someone use your jacket?” Ortiz asked.
Ryan looked toward Frank.
“Because everyone knows Mr. Collins would recognize it.”
Frank felt the trap closing.
The attacker had not merely hidden behind Ryan’s clothing.
They had chosen the one person whose guilt would destroy Frank emotionally and distract him from the real evidence.
Ryan began shaking.
“I should’ve been there.”
Frank moved closer.
“You were attacked too.”
“I promised Maya I’d help her.”
“Help her with what?”
Ryan looked toward the detective.
“Professor Lang’s research.”
The name changed the atmosphere.
Dr. Victor Lang was one of the university’s most respected biomedical engineers.
He was also Maya’s mentor.
Ryan swallowed.
May you like
“Maya said the lab had been testing something on students without telling them the real risks.”
👉 Ryan’s stolen jacket was only camouflage—the real motive was hidden inside a prestigious laboratory no one had dared to question.
